International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol 38, No. 3
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Campbell N. Moody’s Reflections on the Christian Mission Kazue Mino hile cross-cultural encounters in the course of Christian From the beginning of their Taiwan mission in 1865, EPM Wmission often occasioned conflict between foreign missionaries mainly worked among Minnan-speaking Chinese- missionaries and local people, these interactions also led mis- Taiwanese, as well as with the Pepo. Minnan is one of the most sionaries to a renewed awareness of Christianity. As A. Hamish widely used Taiwanese vernaculars, and the Pepo, or plains Ion pointed out in his examination of British missionaries in the tribes, are indigenous peoples who have actively assimilated Japanese Empire, missionaries, as members of a minority group in Chinese-Taiwanese cultures and languages. In Taiwan EPM a foreign society, were liable to try to control their environment by stressed medical and educational activities in their Christian emphasizing their cultural superiority over missionary endeavors. They opened a “heathen” foreigners.1 In her case study of dispensary as soon as the Taiwan mission Walter Dening (1846–1913), however, Helen was established. Then in 1877, after con- Ballhatchet demonstrates that there are centrating staff in Taiwan-fu (present-day also noteworthy examples of missionaries Tainan) to form the Mission Council, which whose views on Christianity and missionary became the headquarters of the Taiwan activity were changed through their attempt mission, they founded a theological college to capture the meaning of Christianity for to train Taiwanese evangelists, followed those who received it.2 by a middle school in 1885 and a girls’ For the influence of the mission field school in 1887. Local mission stations were on perceptions of Christianity, the case of established in southern and central Taiwan, Campbell N. Moody (1865–1940) is sugges- and missionaries made occasional visits to tive. Between 1895 and 1924 Moody, a Scot- preach or baptize candidates. tish missionary of the English Presbyterian While another missionary, William Mission (EPM), worked mainly in colonial Campbell (1841–1921, active in Taiwan Taiwan. Stimulated by interactions with 1871–1917), and Moody in particular were Taiwanese people, Moody consciously criti- known for articulating the virtues of station cized “the Western eye,” that is, a viewpoint visiting and street preaching, some EPM that tends to perceive the ethnic and reli- missionaries in Taiwan did not regard these gious other through negative stereotypes.3 methods as particularly effective, which SOAS Library Archives, University of London Examination of Moody’s literary works frustrated Moody. He expressed his feelings Campbell N. Moody and his personal correspondence written in a personal letter, writing that, with the during his early years as a foreign missionary, between 1895 exception of Campbell, the missionaries in Taiwan-fu “treat po-to and the 1910s, throws light on how he formed and articulated [open-air evangelism] with a sort of mild scorn.”5 Nevertheless, his attitude toward sociopolitical and religious issues through with Chiang-hoa (Zhanghua) in central Taiwan as a base station, interaction with Taiwanese people, then under Japanese rule.4 he continued to practice street preaching and supported the establishment of more than ten mission stations in mid-Taiwan, Mission Activities including churches in Lok-kang (Lugang, 1897), Chhau-tun (Caotun, 1900), Toa-siaN (Dashe, 1905), and Ji-lim (Erlin, 1924). Campbell Naismith Moody was born in 1865 to a Free Church Moody was also well known for his simple lifestyle, exem- family in Bothwell, Scotland. A graduate of the University of plified by his wearing worn clothes, eschewing the use of rick- Glasgow and the Free Church College, Glasgow, Moody started shaws, and traveling third-class. Lim Hak-kiong (1857–1943), working in 1890 as a home missionary in Gallowgate, an impov- a Taiwanese evangelist and later minister who worked with erished district in Glasgow. In 1895 he joined EPM and sailed Moody in the Chiang-hoa region, described him as follows: to Taiwan, which had been occupied by the Japanese earlier that same year. He was also involved in missions in Singapore He was not a rich person. He was frugal, and wore ragged (1901–2). After he married Margaret Rintoul Findlay in 1907, they clothes. When his mother sent him Western clothes, he sent them back to her. For he did not want people to think he was hard worked together in Taiwan (1908–9, 1915), Australia (1909), and to approach. He ate frugally too. Once, a cook bought a slice of New Zealand (1909–14). Margaret suffered poor health and died cero for him but since he wanted to avoid luxury, he made the in 1915 in Taiwan. In 1921 Moody married Margaret Christian cook sell the fish back. Thus he lived thriftily, and spent what he Arthur, known as Peggie, who had joined the Taiwan mission received before God and contributed them to churches.6 in 1919 and who later wrote Moody’s biography. Moody consciously tried to maintain close contact with Tai- Kazue Mino is a doctoral student at Kyoto University wanese people and adopted some of their practices in order to Graduate School of Education, in Japan, where she is carry out missionary tasks. When he engaged in street preaching, studying the history of English Presbyterian Missions he often did so with one or two Taiwanese evangelists, whom he in Taiwan under Japanese rule, focusing on the Scottish typically let take the lead. Moody also adopted Lim’s methods missionary Campbell N. Moody. for gathering crowds, using musical instruments such as drums, —[email protected] gongs, and bugles. To gain an audience, he would cry, “Where the children of God have gone!,” employing a method widely used in Taiwan when people were searching for lost children July 2014 135 in busy parts of towns and villages.7 Moody’s personal letters between Bruce and Moody suggests that Moody’s opposition to home clearly show that he adopted a strategic approach to his negative stereotypes, which was cultivated by his educational work, and it is likely that he made use of information concern- experiences, was partly self-critical. ing the methods of the China Inland Mission (CIM). In 1898 he Moody recognized that he shared the negative image of mentioned in a letter that he was curious about the CIM and the moral shortcomings of heathen people. While resident in admired its missionaries for being “rather better at preaching Singapore he once came to the aid of an elderly man who was than other missionaries are” because of their “intimate contact drowning in a drain. None of the many Chinese people gathered with the people, and constant evangelistic efforts,” including around dared to help, for fear that the Malay police would charge living and dressing according to native custom.8 them with assault, which brought Moody close to breaking out “in righteous indignation.” Immediately afterward, he learned Colonialism and Negative Stereotypes that the elderly man had been pushed into the drain by American marines. Moody was “compelled to burn in silent shame,” for From 1895 into the early 1900s, those involved in the Taiwanese he recognized that, in feeling “righteous” anger, he had shared armed resistance against the Japanese often hid among unarmed the common assumption that the Chinese were heartless people. civilians, leaving Japanese officials unable to distinguish between Moody observed, “Thus East and West were one in heartless self- “robbers” and “good people.”9 In a letter to his former co-worker regard”; heartlessness could not be solely attributed to particular in Gallowgate, Moody censured the Japanese army, believing ethnic groups.16 them to “bring these troubles on themselves” by “taking little care Moody noticed that his negative images of the cultural other to distinguish between guilty & innocent,” which gave reason were also the product of simple linguistic misunderstandings. for innocent civilians, who had not previously fought against In a letter to a friend dated 1899, he describes how he and Tai- Japanese forces, to turn to revengeful resistance.10 At the time, wanese evangelist Chheng encountered the body of a Taiwanese criticism of the Japanese for their harsh treatment of the Taiwanese man who had been shot dead by Japanese police officers. They was fairly common. The publication in English of several articles learned that the victim had told the soldiers that he came from condemning “the savage and relentless severity” of the Japanese Lam-tau (Nantou), a hotbed of resistance, and the Japanese triggered anonymous correspondence from a missionary stationed officers had jumped to the conclusion that he was taking part in in Taiwan-fu who discussed the 1896 massacre perpetrated by criminal activities. During a sermon at a mission station, Chheng the imperial army in Yunlin, mid-Taiwan.11 referred to the incident as “a laughable matter.” Moody expressed By 1907, when Moody published his first literary work, The his great shock at the Taiwanese people’s severely “callous” Heathen Heart, he had come to focus on the broader problems of attitude toward the sufferings of others.17 But in 1931 he added cross-cultural interaction, including the sense of superiority over to a copy of this letter, “This hardly does justice to the irony of the colonized people exhibited by both Japanese and Western Chinese ‘laughable.’” Presumably, the word Moody translated colonialists. Furthermore, he noticed that Christian missionaries, “laughable” was kho-chhio in Minnan Taiwanese, which means funny but can take on very cynical and contemptuous overtones. Considering that Moody acknowledges the shy but “honest, In interactions with and kindly” Chheng’s commitment as a Christian worker in The Saints of Formosa (1912), it is probable that he had recognized his Taiwanese people, Moody misunderstanding much earlier than 1931.18 had many opportunities In his interactions with Taiwanese people during open-air evangelism, Moody had many opportunities to shed his negative to shed his negative images images of non-Christians.